Yes, it&#039;s true - cheese really is addictive, says study

DH Vancouver StaffOct 23, 2015 9:52 am

Do images of melty, gooey cheese stir something inside of you that you can’t explain? Do you ever wonder why you can’t seem to stop piling those delicious nachos into your gullet, even though you know they’re terrible for you?

You might be addicted to cheese.

A study published in the U.S. National Library of Medicine indicates that some foods have addictive qualities when they have certain levels of fat and sugar. Pizza was repeatedly named throughout the study as one of the highly processed foods that tops the list.

The study says in nature there isn’t any one food that has both a high sugar and high fat content – foods that have both are “highly processed” and are human constructs. Therefore, foods like pizza tend to have an especially addictive quality about them due to their high glycemic load.

So what makes cheese specifically so addictive? Well, according to Mic, cheese contains something called casein which releases an opiate-like chemical during digestion known as casomorphins.

“[Casomorphins] really play with the dopamine receptors and trigger that addictive element,” said Cameron Wells, a registered dietician to Mic.

So next time someone tells you you’re literally addicted to cheese, you can agree whole-heartedly and point them to this article.

And now – just because we can – here’s a compilation of some of the most tantalizing pictures of melted cheese on Instagram.